Steve the Headcrab
Chapter 3
Many years had passed since that day. Steve (or "Lamarr" as he was now being called) was imprisoned by that awful human, Kleiner, and was soon relocated to his laboratory in City 17. As much as he'd hate to admit it, Steve was better off with the human than in Black Mesa. After all, he'd rather be alive than decimated in a nuclear detonation. Though, after being de-beaked and losing most of his dignity, he sometimes thought otherwise. And as for why he continued to stay with the human? Over the years, Steve had slowly begun to understand the disgusting human language, and Kleiner had kept bringing up a certain word - teleporter.
This instilled a small amount of hope in Steve. He now had a plan: He'd endure staying with Kleiner long enough for the teleporter to be functional, figure out how to use it to get back to Xen, and he'd finally be home! Plus, he'd be safe from the chaos going on outside. His plan was immediately put on hold, however, after the incident with the cat. He didn't want to go out like that. Stupid humans, he thought, can't even get a basic teleporter right. If I still had my beak, I'd hop on him and make it myself! Sadly, he'd have to bear with Kleiner for a bit longer.
Speaking of Kleiner, the human talked to himself a lot. It was one of the reasons Steve was able to pick up his language so quickly. He'd often reminisce about Black Mesa and his coworkers, many of which died in the incident. He kept mentioning a lot of names, some of which Steve would come to know: Calhoun, Vance, Freeman, Coolatta, Breen.
Freeman. That one was the most interesting to Steve. The humans talked about Gordon Freeman as if he was some sort of hero. The Vortigaunts especially saw him as a messiah. Steve's memories from his short time at Black Mesa were blurry, but he remembers briefly seeing Gordon. Gordon Freeman? That weird human in the orange suit jumping around everywhere? Doesn't seem like much of a hero to me, Steve thought. He didn't pay it much mind, though. He only cared about the teleporter and getting home.
It was a normal day at the lab; Kleiner was hard at work and Steve was eating his meal of watermelons. Kleiner claimed that watermelon was a "suitable substitute for a human head," but Steve was satisfied with any food - he was an omnivore after all. Wait, satisfied? No, Steve would only be satisfied when he finally escapes from this place! Steve's train of thought came to a halt when he heard Kleiner speaking with another human through a video call - Barney, from the sounds of it. Steve was (unfortunately) getting used to the other humans, and could match them to their voices. He was going to ignore them until-
"Great Scott! Gordon Freeman! I expected more warning."
Gordon Freeman? The big "hero" everyone's been talking about? Here? Oh, now things were starting to get interesting...